Of Left and Right Hands of God
by Phalanxx
Summary: To prove herself capable of magic, a ten year old Louise de la Vallière decides to attempt one of the most famous magical rituals of all, the familiar summoning. OC familiar.
1. Prologue

_Edit: I wanted to thank MrBirthday over at the spacebattles forum for beta-reading this. Thanks man._

**Prologue**

"Mistress!"

"Louise!"

"Miss Vallière!"

Ten-year-old Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière remained hidden in the closet, in one of her family's mansion guest rooms, while her family servants' voices washed over her. It was not an uncommon occurrence for Louise to disappear like this; it could even be considered strange for Louise to spend a week _without_ disappearing like this, especially when Eléonore was home from school.

The two sisters' tempers were incredibly similar and they were constantly at odds with one another. The reason for the latest dispute was, once again, Louise's magic.

Louise managed to show some talent for most theoretical aspects of magic, something she really liked to show off to her sisters. However, whenever Louise tried to actually _cast_ a spell, only explosions occurred, as her older sister Eléonore liked so much to remind her. Afterwards, Louise would try (and usually fail) to get revenge on her sister; starting yet another row with Eléonore.

Eléonore didn't actually _try_ to be mean to Louise, but when you combined the tempers from both sisters, things always managed to escalate to completely-out-of-proportions levels; the kind of levels where fratricide by explosion was considered by the younger sister. When Eléonore lost her temper, Louise's cheeks were the ones to suffer.

This time, though, Louise hadn't run after her confrontation with Eléonore. Oh, they had been at each other's throats once again, and Louise intended to get even with Eléonore later; but no, Louise hadn't run away to hide. She was doing this with a very special reason in mind. After this, no one else would say she couldn't use magic.

Louise waited a few more minutes for the voices to completely fade away, before slowly exiting her hiding place. She knew how the searches for her usually went. The servants would walk around calling for her, thoroughly search her room, and then go outside, where a much more intense searching effort would occur; after all, Louise had never hidden inside the house, or so her family servants believed. Louise felt a little proud about her hiding skills. It was true that she usually didn't hide inside the mansion; sometimes she did, using the small amount of time without supervision to explore the library and read books that her family wouldn't let her see otherwise.

It was something that she read in one of those books that gave her this idea. She was reading an old book about rituals, when she read about the familiar summoning ritual; one of the most famous rituals of all, created by the very Founder himself. She knew about familiars, of course; her mother's familiar was a very big and old manticore, who Louise sometimes feed meat from the kitchens, but she never actually thought about the summoning of the familiar. The book she found talked about the ritual, explaining about some of its characteristics, but it wasn't terribly detailed about it.

Louise didn't let that discourage her; after browsing the library for some time, she found a few more books that spoke about the summoning. A few of those were exclusively dedicated to the summoning and care of familiars, giving some examples of some of the most magnificent familiars ever summoned.

Louise had stealthily left the library with a few selected tomes in hand and had hid them in her bedroom, before going outside. A few minutes later she had let the servants find her and call off the search.

Since that day, Louise had read all of the tomes she had borrowed, going so far as to find a few more. She became almost obsessed with the summoning ritual, dreaming of summoning some majestic creature as a familiar; something like her mother's manticore, or a dragon, or any other almost legendary creature like that.

She asked both her parents about their familiars and their summoning, bothering them so many times for details about the ritual that her family started worrying about her seeming obsession with familiars; after which Karin put a stop to Louise's questions. It had seemed that not even Louise's stubbornness managed to match Karin's and so Louise seemingly backed down on her questioning.

But, underneath all that, Louise never stopped thinking about the ritual; after thoroughly reviewing the books on the subject, she decided to summon a familiar. It would be a hard task, some would even say heretical; after all, the Founder summoned his familiar when he was on the verge of becoming a grown man. As every mage should do. Ten-year-old Louise didn't care about any of that, and not even giving a thought to the Founder, she started preparing for the ritual.

She first memorized the chant, memorizing its words and what was trying to be convened by every word. Then she studied the summoning circle, studying each character and its meaning. Finally she started drawing small summoning circles, practicing for when the ritual came.

Eventually, Louise started making the final preparations for the summoning itself. She choose to attempt the ritual in the library; after all, that was the place she got the idea from. After a few more of her "escapades", during which she spent some time in the library drawing a circle hidden beneath one of the thick carpets, she was finished with all of her preparations.

Today was the day that Louise had chosen for the ritual. That was the reason why she had provoked Eléonore earlier, seemly running away once again at the end of it. If things played out as usual, she would have more than enough time to complete the ritual.

Slowly and carefully Louise left the guest room and moved in direction of the library, trying not to make any loud noises. A few minutes later she arrived at the library and, after a few seconds of listening at the door, entered and moved towards the hidden circle.

Looking for a few seconds at the circle, Louise sighed and slowly started the ceremony. She started the chant slowly, trying to be as silent as possible, before her confidence grew and she chanted louder.

"I beg of you… My servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"

Louise could almost feel her magic pulsing with her every word, as if this was the first true spell she attempted to cast.

"Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit!"

Some of the runes of the circle seemed to light up.

"I desire and here I plead from my heart!"

_Please! Please! Please!_ Louise shouted in her mind.

"Answer to my guidance!"

With what almost felt like a roar, Louise's magic answered to her commands. For a moment, Louise felt somewhat faint, fearing she failed once again; then an explosion, the biggest she had ever made, threw her against one of the library's walls.

Louise lost consciousness for a few moments; she woke, still on the floor of the library, and looked around after slowly getting up, seeing the destruction she had caused.

"Mother's going to kill me!" Louise whimpered to herself.

Suddenly the library's door crashed inwards, opened with almost supernatural strength, and Eléonore entered the library.

"What have you done now, runt?" Eléonore asked Louise, after a few moments of looking around the room.

"Nothing?" Half-squeaked Louise, trying and failing to appear innocent.

"Nothing? _Nothing_?" Screeched Eléonore, while both sisters once again started one of their usual fights. And like that, the sisters warred and shouted back and forth, not paying attention to the familiar that still remained unconscious inside Louise's magic circle.

.

.

.

Karin Desiree de La Vallière was, above all else, an extremely rigorous woman. During her entire life she followed her own set of rules, her rule of steel, upholding values such as loyalty, courage and honor.

She was known all throughout Halkeginia as one of the most powerful mages in the land. She was the former commander of the Manticore Corps of the Tristanian Kingdom and her legend was such that enemy soldiers usually preferred to desert than to risk fighting against her. More than one army had simply fled once they heard they would have to face her.

Despite all that, she didn't let her own legend inflate her sense of self. She knew she wasn't perfect, not even near. Sometimes, one of the things she feared most was that she wasn't a good mother. She did her best, of course, but she couldn't let herself be less strict with her daughters than she was with herself. She had seen many spoiled children during her time at court; seen their behavior and swore to herself that any child she had would be held to a higher standard.

With all that in mind, Karin sometimes wondered if she was doing a good job as a parent. She never let anyone see her doubts, of course; how to hide things behind a false face was one of the first things that she had learned at court, but she still had those doubts deep inside.

Eléonore was her first child. The day she was born was one of the happiest of Karin's life, rivaled only by the days Cattleya and Louise were born. Despite the lack of practice, Karin did her best raising her; she believed that she had raised Eléonore successfully. After all, Eléonore was a powerful mage for her age, a triangle class, and had been one of the best students of the Tristain Academy of Magic. Eléonore's temper needed some work; as did her manners sometimes, but taking everything into account, Karin was happy with how Eléonore turned out.

Cattleya was her second child, and one that almost cost them both their lives at birth. While Eléonore was born and grew up with incredible similarities to her father, Cattleya resembled Karin from the day she was born. For the first few months after Cattleya's birth, Karin found something that was rare to her, happiness. It was a kind of happiness that not even Eléonore's birth had managed to bring about. For those few months, Karin was happy as she had never been before; she smiled more and played with both her children, laughed as Eléonore made happy faces at Cattleya, and kissed her husband with more warmth than ever before.

That was when it all came crashing down. Cattleya was found to be sick with a rare wasting sickness that not even the best healers could cure. For all of their efforts, all water mages could offer was some relief of her symptoms, some small improvement that soon the disease managed to undo.

Karin was forced to bottle her emotions inside herself and be strong enough for all of her family, for her husband and children. She swore she would never again let herself become as vulnerable as she was those few months.

Louise was her third child. Like Cattleya, Louise strongly resembled Karin, although her father could also be seen plainly in her face. In a way, Louise was the one who, out of all of Karin's children, most resembled her. While her looks weren't the same, Louise behaved very much like Karin did at her age, if you accounted for the differences in their upbringing. She was stubborn, bossy and did all she could for things to go her way.

Despite similarities to her younger self, Karin didn't, couldn't let Louise do as she willed, so she spent considerable time bending her daughter's will to hers, making Louise behave as she should and not as she wanted to. It wasn't an easy task, but Louise eventually stopped defying Karin's will as openly as she would before, or at least, she seemed to.

_Seemed to sounds about right_. Karin thought about her daughter's latest magical mishap. Her daughter had somehow managed to summon a familiar at the incredible age of ten, something that should, by all rights, make her daughter a magical prodigy. Yet that was not to be. While her daughter was very apt at most theoretical aspects of magic, she had never before managed to successfully complete a spell. Every time she tried she had gotten an explosion as the end result.

Now, though, her daughter did something almost unbelievable; not only had she managed to summon a familiar at the age of ten, but she summoned another human being, something spoken about only in legends.

Her daughter's familiar was roughly Karin's age, neither tall nor small, with short black hair starting to turn grey and expressive brown eyes. To Karin's eyes, he resembled some of the Academy's magical professors; he had an almost intellectual look about him. The familiar also brought another problem to the table.

He couldn't speak their language; and no one recognized the language he was speaking. In the past week, several attempts had been made to communicate to the man, but all of them failed. The familiar still remained in the infirmary, after suffering some small injuries from his summoning, but no one had managed to actually talk to him. He seemed to understand what the water mages were doing to him and so didn't resist their efforts in curing him; although, he acted extremely surprised whenever someone used magic around him.

Louise was ecstatic about her familiar; for the past week she had a bright grin in her face, a grin that only faded slightly when confronted by Karin, but even then she didn't completely lose it. She even went as far as breaking into the infirmary and binding her familiar after Karin had forbidden it, but for some reason Karin couldn't especially blame her daughter for that; after all, he was her familiar, even if he was a human being.

Some small voice in Karin's head insisted that Karin didn't punish her daughter because deep inside, she wanted to scream like a schoolgirl with pride at her Louise's success. She ignored that voice.

While thinking about all that happened in the last week, Karin swiftly arrived at her husband's study and let herself in.

Her husband was sitting at his table, concentrating on reading some documents. For a moment Karin stopped and looked at her husband. He wasn't the fairest of men, but Karin loved him all the same. He was pale-skinned and blonde, with his hair down to his shoulders. His was a kind face, somewhat marked by age. The only thing that Karin didn't like about her husband's appearance was the mustache he sported, but that was something that her husband vehemently refused to remove, one of the few things in which Karin couldn't convince her husband to do as she willed.

Karin's own looks were something that most people would call beautiful. She didn't particularly care about her appearance, but she did do her utmost to always appear presentable, as should all nobles. Karin hair was pink, arranged in a bun on top of her head, but for two locks of hair that came down around her face and almost reached her waist. Her face was pale and beautiful, showing no sign of her age, as beautiful now as it was in her youth.

Coughing lightly, Karin announced her presence to her husband. He started, and letting his monocle fall to the desk, looked at her.

"Karin."

"We need to talk about Louise." Karin said.

"And what has our wayward daughter done now?" The Duke asked.

"You mean besides summoning a human being, at age ten?" Karin asked, arching her brow.

"Yes, besides that."

"Nothing yet, but in the future …" Karin's voice faded out.

"What do you mean?" Karin's husband asked slowly.

Karin sighed and sat down on one of the chair in front of her husband's table. She remained silent for some moments before speaking again.

"Louise did something amazing; some would say impossible, but how did she do it?" Karin didn't let her husband respond before continuing. "You saw the circle; it was perfect, something that in itself was an excellent accomplishment for a ten year old. Then she summoned a human, despite the fact that Louise never managed to successfully cast a spell before. Something strange is going on with our daughter's magic. Something's wrong and we have to do something about it."

The Duke remained silent for a few moments, before replaying to his wife's concerns.

"But what can we do? How many healers and specialists did we call to see Louise?" The Duke made an irritated sound at the word specialists. "They don't know what's going on with our daughter's magic, and the only thing they can think of doing is to wait and see if whatever is wrong disappears as she grows up; incompetent fools."

They both remained silent for some time, simply looking at each other, before the duke continued.

"At least now that our daughter successfully summoned something we know she can do magic right, or almost right if we take into account the explosion during the ritual."

"There's also the familiar." Karin interrupted. "Perhaps we should search for some recording of human familiars. Search also for the familiar's runes, seeing if they appeared before on someone's familiar. That might give us some ideas about what wrong with our daughter."

"I already sent a draft of the runes to a friend in the capital." The Duke said. "Perhaps I can ask him about some of those legends of human summoning's. I have other contacts that I can try, as well."

Karin nodded at that. "There's something more we can do."

"Oh?" The Duke made an inquisitive sound.

Karin nodded. "Some of the books that were destroyed by Louise's explosion during the ritual were old and valuable books, but above all else they were enchanted against the elements, some of them ridiculously so. Perhaps we should test just how powerful our daughter's explosions are."

"A good point." The Duke agreed, nodding.

Not seeing anything else to be discussed, Karin got up and slowly started walking to the door. Arriving there, she turned to her husband once more.

"Then tomorrow morning, I will call Louise and I will test her explosions. Perhaps that might give us some more clues about her magic."

Having said her piece, Karin bade her husband goodbye and retired to her bedroom. While walking, the only thing she could think about was what the next day and the future might bring.


	2. Chapter 1

_Edit: I wanted to thank MrBirthday for beta reading this._

**Chapter 1**

It was already night when a sixteen-year-old Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière managed to glimpse the Tristain Academy of Magic for the first time. This far out, Louise couldn't easily describe the Academy; but then, she didn't need to. Her family had her memorize the layout of the Academy before sending her here.

She knew she would find a building with the form of a pentagon, a tower in each vertex of the polygon. One for each element; fire, earth, water, wind, and finally, void. Four of those towers would then be connected to the final tower, which rested in the middle of the pentagon; void being the only tower left out, because there weren't any void users alive.

_Well, except for me._

Sometimes, Louise couldn't believe she was a void mage. Since the night she had summoned her familiar, her family had tried to find out more about whatever was wrong with her magic; after all, who could manage to summon a familiar at age ten? Especially taking into account all the disasters that her magic had brought until that time?

It was only a few weeks after the ritual that the void element possibility was brought up. The first clue was her familiar's runes, which were found to be the runes of the legendary Gandalfr. The second clue was her explosions; explosions that were capable of ripping through even square-level protective magic, something that should be almost impossible except for another square-class mage. Something Louise definitively wasn't.

Even with those clues, the possibility of Louise being a void mage wasn't discussed very seriously. Only after a few years, and her family's persistent search for answers about her magic, did something happen that convinced the Vallière family that Louise might be a void user.

One of her father's contacts had found a sapient sword in one of the capital's blacksmiths and had bought it. At the time, the Vallière family had shown itself interested in all manner of magical books or artifacts; as such, the contact swiftly sent the sword to her father. Initially, her father hadn't appeared very interested in the sword. Sure, it was an incredible sword, but it wasn't something that could help solve the riddle of Louise's magic; at least, that was what he had thought.

That had all changed when the sword first saw Louise's familiar and had managed to recognize what he was, Gandalfr. That, together with what they eventually had found out from the sword, Derflinger, had been enough to convince Louise's family about which element she used.

_Not that it had helped me any._ Indeed, despite finding out which element she used, Louise hadn't managed to improve her practical spell work; after all, the only void user ever mentioned had been Founder Brimir, and he hadn't left any known record of his spells. She had made progress in one other area, though.

The use of magical runes had declined during the centuries; nowadays, they were only used in certain rituals like the summoning ceremony, in the creation of some of the most powerful wards and defense mechanisms, or sometimes in the preparation of certain potions. Yet that was one area where Louise found some success.

Louise rarely managed to create working runes, most of which had been in use for thousands of years, and their effects weren't very impressive. Louise and her family believed these runes might have been designed by the Founder himself, and that was the reason why they worked, but most of those didn't seem like they were made to be used alone; it was like they belonged in a set of runes, hence the lack of impressive effects.

There was a very special rune set that Louise knew was complete and fully functional by itself; the Gandalfr runes. Louise and Eléonore had spent the last few months studying those runes, trying to understand how they work, and hoping they could improve their knowledge enough to develop their own runes. Sadly, that was a slow process.

Sighing, Louise looked away from the carriages window and looked towards her familiar, who was seated on the opposite side of her.

James Alistair Williams was her familiar's name, and he was the closest thing Louise ever had to an uncle; he was almost like Louise's second father. She still remembered the first time she saw him, after she finished fighting with Eléonore in the moments following the summoning ritual. He had been lying on the ground, in the middle of her magic circle, unconscious. For a moment, Louise had thought her explosion had killed him, but then he moved and rose up. After that, her sister saw him as well and swiftly called the servants, who took him to the infirmary.

The first months after his summoning were difficult. He hadn't known the language they spoke, or any other language that the Vallière family had ever heard before, but eventually he learned to speak their language. Nowadays, he spoke it as if he had all his life. He told her he was something of an expert in languages, and that theirs, despite being completely unknown to him, wasn't very hard to learn.

"Something on your mind, Louise?" James asked, looking up from the book he had been reading during the last leg of their trip.

The years had not been kind to her familiar. Louise knew he was more or less the same age her parents were, but he looked older. His hair had turned completely grey, and was thinning; he was completely bald in some spots. His face, almost always devoid of facial hair, couldn't conceal its age and some pronounced wrinkles could be seen on it. Despite it all, Louise couldn't help but like her familiar's face; one dear to her, as was that of any of her family members.

_Well, except for Eléonore._

He was dressed very much like her father used to dress, looking very much like a noble himself. On his waist there was the only thing that would look out of place on most nobles; a sword in a scabbard, Derflinger.

"Perhaps the little missy misses her family already?" Derflinger spoke, raising itself a few inches out of his sheath, quillions moving as he spoke. "Especially that blonde harpy sister of hers, you know how both of them are."

"Why you little…" Louise started, before Derflinger seemed to emit a sound like a chuckle and hid himself once again in his scabbard.

James looked at Louise, amused. "You know, it's completely normal for you to miss your family, Louise; after all, you've never been far away from them before." Seeing Louise settling herself once again on her seat, he continued. "And it's alright if you miss Eléonore too, Louise; after all, we all know how much you love each other."

"I don't miss her at all." Louise snapped, as both her familiar and his sword laughed at her. "I just don't see what we can possibly gain by coming here." She said, thrusting her hand at the Academy that loomed ahead.

"We talked about this before. You know why."

"I know why you think so, I just don't agree. I doubt they will manage to teach me magic any better than the legion of tutors my parents tried over the years. At least at home I would have much more free time to study runes."

James sighed. "You know that's not the only reason why we came here. Yes, your parents and I hope that maybe someone at the Academy will find a way to help you, or at least, find some more clues about your magic in the library, but that's not the main reason we have come here. Also, your runes, while better than nothing, don't have any great practical use and you know it."

"My runes work just fine, thank you." Louise snapped back.

Ignoring her, James continued; "You need to socialize with people and interact with others your age. Make a few friends."

"I doubt there's much chance of that." Louise scoffed. "After they find out about my magic, they'll say I only managed to enter the academy because of my family; especially seeing as I will start as a second year."

"Louise …" James interrupted.

"And they are going to, aren't they?" Louise mumbled. "After all, I am going to be seen as a failure, not as a regular student."

Both familiar and master remained silent for a few moments; then James spoke up.

"Louise …" He started out slowly, not wanting to hurt the girl, but at the same time needing her to understand. "You're never going to be normal."

Louise looked surprised at her familiar.

"You're a void mage, it doesn't matter if people out there discover it or not," He said, pointing at the ever-nearing Academy. "If people don't discover you're a void mage, they will think you're a failure, a useless mage that can't control her magic."

Louise looked dejected.

"If you do manage to learn how to harness your powers, they will look at you as if seeing the Founder reborn. The common people will hail you as their savior, even if don't actually go out of your way to help them. Enemies of your family and kingdom will fear you and conspire against you, but never ever will anyone look at you and see a regular person. You must rid yourself of that idea or I fear you're going to be unhappily surprised in the future."

James cast a serious look at Louise; she nodded, and in a moment seemed to compose herself. If anyone looked now, they wouldn't realize just how close to tears she had been a minute ago.

James hated himself for having to dash Louise's hopes, but it was the only way he had to protect her. Otherwise, Louise could have suffered a much bigger disappointment in the future.

A few minutes later, the carriage stopped at the Academy's gates and both of them got off. Waiting for them was a bald, middle-aged man, with spectacles on his face.

"Miss Vallière?"

"I'm here!" Louise answered.

"I'm Professor Colbert, one of the teachers here. Welcome."

Louise and James nodded at that.

"Please follow me, the headmaster is waiting." The professor continued, gesturing for them to follow.

They followed Colbert towards the main tower and after a few minutes, they arrived at the entrance to the headmaster's office. Moving forwards, Professor Colbert knocked twice at the door, before opening it and gesturing for both Louise and James to follow.

Inside the room two desks could be seen; an empty one near the door, while behind the other one sat the person that could only be headmaster Osmond.

Old Osmond, as he was usually known, was an elderly man, with long white hair and a far-reaching white beard. To Louise he looked like an inoffensive old man; at least until he turned his face towards her and she could see the look in his eyes. He managed to have the same look on his face that her mother sometimes had; a look that said he was studying very seriously what was in front of him, studying every detail he could of the person he used it on.

Then suddenly, the look disappeared as if it had never existed, and Osmond spoke.

"Come in, come in." He said, animatedly gesturing them inside. "Who are there fellows, Cameron?"

Professor Colbert coughed. "It's Colbert, headmaster."

"As you say, Collins, as you say; wait for a moment while I find a sweet for the young child." Osmond said, gesturing at Louise, while searching for something in his desk's drawers.

Louise twitched.

Colbert swiftly interrupted. "Ah headmaster, this is Miss Vallière, the new student? You remember …"

Osmond looked stunned for a moment before replying. "This young lady? But she's so small, certainly no older than twelve."

Louise twitched again, gritting her teeth at the same time.

James stepped forward and put a hand on Louise's shoulder. "I can assure you this is indeed Louise de la Vallière, headmaster Osmond. You shouldn't let her appearance fool you, headmaster; she is a sixteen-year-old girl."

"Quite alright, old man, I believe you." Osmond said to James.

James twitched.

"Please sit." Osmond continued, gesturing towards the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk.

After a moment of hesitation, Louise and her familiar sat, while Colbert moved forward and stood tall at the headmaster's side.

"Might I offer you anything to eat or drink?" The headmaster questioned. "Tea? Biscuits?"

"That would be lovely, thank you." James replied.

Colbert, Louise and James remained silent while Osmond looked several times between his guests and the empty desk by the door, seemingly looking for something. After a moment, he looked forwards once again.

"Um, my secretary isn't present at the moment; it seems we will have to do without any treats."

James twitched again.

Colbert took a small step forward. "I will go to the kitchens and have tea and biscuits brought to our guests, headmaster."

"Very well." The headmaster replied.

Colbert swiftly left the room.

"Good man, a very good man, that Cadwell is." Osmond said.

No one replied to him.

"How was your trip?" Osmond questioned his guest. "Comfortable, I hope."

"It was without incident; thank you for your concern, headmaster." James answered.

"Good, good, roads these days tend to be rather unsafe, especially for some older folk." Osmond replied, vaguely gesturing in James direction.

James gritted his teeth, before Louise decided to interrupt the conversation.

"Thank you for your concern, headmaster, but no mere ruffian would dare attack a noble; especially a Vallière, like I." She spoke sweetly to Osmond, as if explaining something to a young child.

Osmond's face took a more serious tone. "Ah, yes, of course your family is very well known; most wouldn't dare attack you, but these days, we never know." Osmond paused for a second before continuing. "Miss Vallière, I must ask you; what exactly prompted you to come here, to our Academy?"

"My parents thought I should socialize more with people my age."

Osmond seemed to ponder Louise's answer for a few moments. "Really? I have to say that I find myself a little confused, Miss Vallière; after all, if your parents really believe so, why didn't they send you here last year, as most nobles your age were?"

Here, Louise assumed a preoccupied face before replying. "Headmaster, I don't know; exactly what did the teacher that was sent to test me tell you about my problems with magic?"

"Professor Chevreuse explained you have some difficulty in actually casting spells. Your perfect score on the written test was enough for her to believe you could be placed together with the second years, especially since you have already summoned a familiar, but she did mention some difficulties with practical spell casting that you would eventually have to overcome."

"I will have to do my best to thank her then."

"Oh, no need," The headmaster replied. "She already spoke wonders of the hospitality of the great Vallière family. I'm sure your parents already thanked her enough."

Louise was about to retort to the headmaster, when there was a knock at the door. Two seconds later, Colbert once again entered the room, followed by a young black-haired maid who brought beverages and food on a platter. The young maid swiftly placed the treats on Osmond's desk, then excused herself. By the time Colbert placed himself at Osmond side, Louise had managed to regain her composure; putting aside her irritation at the old mage's veiled accusations.

"So Miss Vallière, what exactly is the problem you have with casting spells?" The headmaster questioned.

"I … I can't cast a spell without the end result being an explosion."

Both teachers opened their mouths at that, surprised, before closing them.

"Every time?" Professor Colbert asked.

"Yes." James replied. "The only successful spell Louise managed to cast was the familiar summoning when she was ten; even then there was an explosion, but the spell worked."

"Age ten?" Colbert and Osmond blurted out, surprised.

"Yes."

"That's an incredible accomplishment, Miss Vallière; why wasn't Professor Chevreuse informed of it?" The headmaster questioned.

Louise hesitated for a moment. "There are… some irregularities with my familiar."

"What irregularities?" Colbert asked.

James slowly reached out and took off the glove he had on his left hand. Turning it around, he showed it to the Academy members. "From what we discovered, summoning a human as a familiar isn't exactly common."

Silence remained in the room, while James simply covered his hand once again.

"That… that is quite surprising." Osmond spoke absently, looking at Louise.

Colbert nodded, stunned.

"We hope this can be kept quiet, you understand." James said.

Osmond nodded.

"Of course," Colbert said. "I am sure we can do something about it; if necessary we might even say that Miss Vallière already summoned a familiar, but for some reason had to leave it behind with her family. Maybe because of some disease."

"We will appreciate it."

After a silent moment Louise spoke. "My parents hope that maybe someone here will be able to help me control my magic. That is the reason we have come here, headmaster."

"Yes, I can see that." The headmaster replied. "Also, at the same time you will be able to craft alliances with nobles your age, or at least try to. I am not blind, Miss Vallière; everyone with eyes can see how your family has expanded its power over the last few years. Some would even dare say that your family has some most unsavory objectives in mind."

Louise simply exploded; she got up, accidently shoving her chair to the ground. "My family is loyal to the crown and I will not let some witless old fool say otherwise." She said, breathing hard.

The tension seemed to build up for a few moments between the occupants of the room, before Osmond put his hands up in a sign of peace, and spoke.

"I apologize if I offended you, Miss Vallière, it was not my intention." Osmond lied through his teeth. "Although, it warms my heart to see someone so easily demonstrate their loyalty to the crown."

Louise remained quiet for a few seconds, looking at the headmaster. "Don't let it happen again." She finally said, in a chilling tone of voice.

Slowly she reached down to her chair and, after putting it in place, sat down slowly. Not an ounce of emotion could be seen on her face.

"Well then, I believe this concludes our business here." Osmond spoke after a moment. "If there isn't anything else to be discussed…" He half-questioned his guests.

James shook his head at the headmaster.

"Then Professor Colbert will see you to your rooms in the guest quarters. Tomorrow we will see about moving young Miss Vallière to one of our student rooms. Classes begin in three days."

James nodded at the headmaster. Louise remained motionless.

"If you could follow me…" Colbert half-questioned, nervously coughing to get his guests' attention.

Both guests got up and moved to follow the balding professor. James, seeing his nervousness, smiled at the man, trying to be as non-confrontational as he could. Louise, at his side, remained stone-faced.

They found the maid that had served them waiting outside the door. Colbert motioned her to follow them.

The walk towards the guest rooms was silent, filled with some nervous tension from the Academy staff. Soon enough, they arrived at their designated rooms, where Louise's and James's suitcases could be seen outside the doors.

Professor Colbert coughed. "Uh, well, here we are. You just have to choose which room each of you will have. Miss Vallière, if you would like to take a bath, or need anything else just speak to Miss…" Colbert looked at the maid, wondering.

"Siesta, sir." The maid spoke timidly.

"Well, just speak to Miss Siesta and she will be able to help you; she will remain at the servant's quarters at the end of the corridor for this night."

Louise nodded seriously.

Colbert smiled nervously before speaking. "I will be going, then. Good night and… I a-apologize for any…" Colbert seemed to hesitate. "Well, good night."

"Good night." James spoke, while Louise and Siesta nodded at the balding professor.

Colbert swiftly left.

Louise simply chose one of the rooms and entered, not paying attention to either person she left behind.

"Um." Siesta said, wondering, looking at James.

"Don't mind Louise; she didn't exactly have a relaxing night. Why don't you go ahead and ask her if she needs anything; while I take care of our luggage?" James asked Siesta with a smile.

Siesta nodded at him and entered Louise's chosen room. Hesitantly, she walked forward, and seeing Louise seated on the bed called out.

"Miss?"

Louise took a moment to focus her sight on the maid before replying. "Yes?"

"Do you need anything?"

Louise thought about it for a minute before replaying. "I would like a bath."

Siesta nodded and swiftly moved towards the guest's room bathroom and started preparing the bath.

A few minutes later, the bath was ready and Siesta once again joined Louise. After a brief conversation Siesta helped disrobe Louise and both girls moved towards the bathroom where Siesta helped Louise bathe.

Afterwards, the maid brought out some small clothes for Louise to dress in, then helped her dress in one of the noble's fluffy robes. When they returned to the room, they found James already present; reading some book while seated on Louise's bed. Derflinger was poised at his side.

"Feel better?" He asked Louise.

"A little." She replied coldly.

James turned to Siesta. "Thank you for your work, Siesta; we appreciate it, and will call you if we need anything."

Siesta nodded and started to leave. Louise remained quiet, at least until James kicked her leg.

"Hey!" She protested. Siesta turned around and looked at the sound.

James gestured with his head to the still-present Siesta.

"Alright." Louise said. Turning to Siesta she said. "Thank you for your help, maid. Good night."

"Good night, mistress." Siesta answered hesitantly.

Both noble and familiar waited in silence while the maid left. Afterwards, James returned to his book while Louise paced back and forth.

A few minutes later James spoke. "You can explode now, if you want."

"That old witless fool! How dare he accuse my family of not being loyal…"

James turned a page on his book.

"…and did he insinuate that my parents suborned that useless earth teacher …"

Another page was turned.

" …I don't know how he managed to become headmaster, useless as he is …"

Another page.

"…and…are you paying any attention to what I am saying?" Louise asked, glaring at her familiar.

Nope." He answered. "Feeling better?"

"…Somewhat!" Louise said, looking away from her familiar's sight. After a moment, she sat down on the middle of her bed, before letting herself fall backwards, ending with her head on the pillow.

After a few minutes, James spoke again. "Old Osmond has been the headmaster of the Academy for a long time; a position that affords him a good amount of power, and he uses that power to do what he wishes with the fate of the Academy."

Louise turned her head towards James.

"It must have galled him to have to bend to your family's will; to be reminded that there are some out there who have the power to give him orders, even in his own domain. He couldn't refuse your family's petition for you to be tested to enter the second year; he probably couldn't even fail you, not without you making a mess of things. Old men like him don't like to be reminded of their limits."

Louise turned thoughtful at that.

"What partner means," Derflinger said, speaking for the first time since the conversation began. "Is that your parents basically reached down between the old man breeches, grabbed his balls and told to do what they wanted or else…"

James choked. "Christ, Derflinger, could you be any crasser?"

"What?" Derflinger replied. "I explained things in the simplest form I could for Pinky there."

James opened his mouth once or twice, intending to deliver a scorching retort to the sword, before he seemed to deflate. "You know what, forget I said anything; it's not like you care, anyway."

"He shouldn't take it out on me." Louise said quietly. Turning once again towards her familiar, she continued. "I can understand if he truly is upset because he was forced to accept me due to my family's influence, but I am innocent; he shouldn't take it out on me."

James yawned. "Well, yeah, he shouldn't, but he couldn't do it to your parents; you're the only one he can actually "hurt", and even then there are limits to what he can do to you. I doubt you're going to see the headmaster again; except in public, during meals and occasions like that. He won't be bothering you anymore."

"It's not fair." Louise whispered.

"Well, that's the way things are. Not all of those who have power know how to use it, or are fair in using it. In those cases, the ones without power are the ones to suffer."

"Maybe we should change that." Louise replied.

"You shouldn't worry about it for now. Get ready for bed; tomorrow you don't have classes, but the last days of voyage were tiring and we need to rest. Sleep well."

With that, James left.

Louise looked on as he left, and afterwards got underneath the covers and tried to sleep, her thoughts plagued by her familiar's words about power and those that were unfit to use it.

"Maybe I can change that." Louise whispered to herself after a while, and with that thought in mind, Louise finally managed to sleep.

.

.

.

Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency was in a very good mood.

Not only had she got a very nice and relaxing sleep, but now she had found a very interesting piece of gossip; something that would probably help distract that Germanian from flirting with Guiche.

Montmorency had what could be called a gossip network in the Academy, ranging from most of her female friends and colleagues, but also to servants and even one of the professors. That network always managed to keep Montmorency informed about the latest news in the Academy, also helping her keep an eye on Guiche, lest he try to cheat on her.

It was thanks to that network that she had managed to find about one new student in the academy.

_Won't Kirche just love this!_

A few more moments of walking later, Montmorency arrived at the Alvíss Dining Hall, and after a few seconds, managed to find the people she was looking for. At one of the tables, some of the people who Montmorency socialized with were present, all of them second-years like her.

Blond-haired Guiche, her boyfriend, was seated at the right side of the Germanian redhead, Kirche. At her left, Lukas could be seen seated, and at his left was Malicorne. At the table's opposite side, Marie and Sophie sat down with Jacques between them. Moving forward, Montmorency arrived at their side, complimented them, and seated herself at Guiche's side.

Montmorency started eating and participating in her peers' conversation, simply waiting for the right moment to reveal the news. A few minutes later, almost all themes of conversation were exhausted, and her colleagues were starting to get ready to leave.

_Time to act!_

"I think you should know, Kirche, there's a new student at school."

The people of the table focused on her at once.

Kirche blinked for a moment before replying. "I think you should have your eyes checked, Montmorency. There's more than one new student at school, Why, indeed I can see a few dozen new students here right now." Kirche gestured towards one of the places where a few brown-cloaked students could be seen in the dining hall.

Montmorency smiled. "I think you'll find yourself more interested in this new student."

"Oh? Why; is it some new, young, beautiful, male around here that I haven't seen before? You shouldn't hoard him yourself, then, I can help."

Guiche interrupted "My Montmorency doesn't have eyes for any…"

"It's a Vallière."

A few moments of silence passed at the table.

"A Vallière, here? Really?" Lukas asked excitedly.

Montmorency nodded, while the remaining nobles started talking all at the same time; save for Kirche, who didn't take her eyes off of Montmorency.

"And how did you find this out?" Kirche asked the blonde girl.

"I have my ways." Montmorency replied.

" …Malicorne, you don't understand; the Vallières are the most powerful family in the realm!" Lukas voice was heard from where he was talking to Malicorne.

"Not as powerful as the crown family." Malicorne riposted.

The remaining students remained silent while paying attention to the two boys' argument.

"Maybe not before, but in the last few years, they have become as powerful as the royal family; some say more."

"No one denies they became richer than they were before; I just don't think they have the political power to be considered the most powerful family of Tristain, that's all."

"Then it's because you don't know anything." Lukas riposted. "Most nobles would be happier with a strong family like the Vallières ruling; rather than to be ruled by a churchman, like we are now."

"Enough." Guiche interrupted the argument. "Be careful what you say, both of you, lest you say treason."

Both young men seemed to realize that the attention of several other tables was on them and nodded, stopping their argument.

They remained silent for a few seconds, while the nearest tables slowly stopped paying attention to them, before Kirche spoke.

"Ah, what should I care that some snooty brat of a Vallière will be entering the Academy; she will only be a first year, I doubt our paths will cross many times." She said smiling, with a shrug.

"Actually," Montmorency started, smirking at the redhead. "I've heard she will be entering directly into our year."

Kirche stopped smiling.

"Not only that," The blonde continued, pure satisfaction oozing out of her voice. "From what I managed to find out, she will be living in the room right across from yours."

Kirche froze.

"It probably is the Vallière's youngest daughter, right?" The brunette, Marie, asked curiously in the silence that followed.

"It's the only Vallière that could possibly come here." Lukas replied.

"Wasn't that the one that the rumors were about?" Malicorne inquired softly.

"What rumors?" Marie questioned.

"Last year, some rumors started being spread around between the nobles that the youngest Vallière was a little simple in the head" Guiche explained. "And that was why she didn't start studying either here at the Academy, or any other magic school."

"Which is an obvious lie," Lukas interrupted. "Seeing as she is here now."

"Obviously." Guiche said, nodding.

The conversation continued for a few minutes, almost all of the mages participating, with the notable exception of Kirche, who remained silent while her colleagues talked back and forth about the new student.

Suddenly, the redhead got up and left the hall, not paying attention to the second years she left behind.

"What is her problem?" Malicorne asked.

"Don't you know anything, Malicorne?" Lukas sighed. "The Vallière's are the owners of the lands that border Germania where Kirche's family, the Von Zerbsts, have their own lands. Whenever there's a war between Germania and Tristain, those two families are the first to engage, resulting in loses to both of them. You could say they are enemies, and in the last few years, the Vallières' power grew while the Zerbsts' power remained unchanged."

"Indeed." Guiche continued. "If there was some war between Tristain and Germania in the near future, the Vallière family would almost certainly crush the Von Zerbsts. I suppose Kirche couldn't be happy to be reminded of that during our conversation."

"We didn't do it on purpose!" Lukas exclaimed.

"I know, I know." Guiche replied.

"There's no reason to worry." Montmorency spoke. "It's been almost thirty years since the last war between Germania and Tristain, and nowadays our relations are peaceful. I doubt conflict of any kind will arise."

"There's always Albion, I m-mean" Malicorne started, stammering. "My parents believe that those rebels can try to do something if they manage to defeat the Albion royals."

"That will never happen." Lukas said firmly. "It's only some rabble that got too uppity for their own good; you'll see soon enough they will be crushed."

"Let's hope so," Guiche replied. "And let's stop conversing about such dreary scenarios."

"My Guiche is right." Montmorency stated. "Let us speak about some happier subject. So, which familiars do you believe each one of us will manage to summon?"

Just like that, conversation at the young student's table became animated once again, while the different mages discussed which familiars they wanted to get and which they believed the others would acquire.

During that entire time, Montmorency couldn't help but think about some of the things that were spoken off during the previous discussion, and how exactly things would change with the entrance of the Vallière daughter into the Academy. Even as she half-heartedly participated in the conversation, she thought about the future, and what she could and should do about it.

.

.

.

Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst wasn't in a very good mood.

This was a rare thing for the Germanian mage. She usually lived her life as she believed life was meant to be lived; one day at a time and as if each day was the last. A bad mood certainly wasn't the way to live life.

Nonetheless, that was as how she felt.

Most people would say she was extremely arrogant. Kirche believed she was only intensely self-confident.

She knew she had a body to die for; she was tall for a woman, tanned and with incredibly wavy red hair. Her curves were in all the right places, and her bust was one of the biggest of the Academy, something she was extremely proud of. Most of the male population of the academy lusted after her, and she indulged some of them; after all, she was young, and sexual pleasure was one of the few comforts she could find in this Tristanian school, in this prudish country.

Her magical power was undeniable. She was a triangle mage, with an affinity for fire. Kirche the Ardent she called herself, both for the heat of her flames, and for the warmth of her passions.

Yet despite all that, she had felt bored the last few days.

Tabitha, the one true friend she had in the Academy, still hadn't arrived from her country of Gallia; flirting with Guiche had lost most of its fun after Montmorency stopped reacting in such a cute way as she used to, and there were no new cute, unattached boys worth seducing. In a way, she had nothing to do but wait for classes to start.

Or at least she hadn't before Montmorency's words earlier this morning. The blonde had appeared at breakfast with a smug smile that Kirche immediately knew was directed at her. The Germanian believed she could handle whatever the blonde was readying, but in the end, she couldn't possibly have predicted what had happened.

The news Montmorency had brought had completely stunned the redhead for a moment. So a Vallière, one of the members of her family rivals, was going to become a student in her Academy?

She knew very well the history between her family, the Von Zerbsts, and the Vallières; some of it marked by the fighting done by both houses during wars, some of it marked by political ploys of one house against another, some marked by the conquests of the bedroom done by one house or the other, all of those happening for longer than anyone could remember. She knew that she had some Vallière blood, just as the Vallière had some Zerbst blood, which was completely normal, given how many members of one family or the other ended up marrying into the rival family during the centuries.

She didn't hate the Vallières; she actually had a lot of respect for them. For her family to have powerful rivals only meant that her family was in itself powerful.

Yet for some reason, she couldn't help but feel angry about this new student; not because she was a Vallière, no, but because Kirche had worked hard during classes last year, and now some girl arrived and entered directly into her class without having spent a year studying at the Academy.

In a way, Kirche was also angry because her family couldn't wield that power over the Tristanian Academy, after all, most of their power was based in Germania; their influence over a Tristanian institution was severely limited. Kirche reminded herself for a moment that she used to frequent Germanian institutions, before cutting off her own trail of thought. She didn't regret anything she had done.

After a few moments, she decided that stewing in her own thoughts wasn't worth it, and leaving her room, she decided to go find the Vallière girl.

The first thing she did was knocking at the new student's room, but after more than a minute of waiting, she concluded the girl wasn't inside the room. That could be a problem, seeing as how she didn't actually knew what the girl looked like; which would certainly make her search for the girl difficult. Shrugging, she decided to walk around for a while until she thought of something.

After walking around for a few minutes, Kirche saw something that gave her an idea. Walking forward, she reached one of the maids who were working. After some small talk, she managed to find out there was a maid that had personally attended the Vallière girl the night before, and where she could find the maid at this time of the day.

Moving swiftly, Kirche arrived at the maid's location, and after looking around saw her. After a small conversation, she managed to find out the broad description of the Vallière girl and her name; Louise.

With that knowledge in hand, Kirche started looking through the Academy for her target. She visited the dining hall, walked the gardens, and even returned and tried to see if Louise was in her room, but Kirche didn't manage to find her.

She thought a little more about where Louise could be before deciding to try the main tower. It could be that the girl had left to go visit the Tristanian capital, but if that happened, Kirche would only manage to find her later in the day.

Entering the main tower, Kirche decided to visit the library first, and there she found what she looking for. Sitting at one of the tables was the girl the maid had described. Kirche moved towards one of the shelves near the girl in order to see her better.

The girl was short. That was the first thing that came to Kirche's mind. Her hair was long and wavy, in a startling shade of pink that Kirche thought couldn't possibly be natural. Her face was young, and at the moment focused on the book she was reading. Kirche moved forward slowly and called out.

"Hello!" She said, somewhat loudly.

"Uha…" The pink-haired girl mumbled, looking up at Kirche, blinking her eyes several times.

Kirche used the opportunity to better study the girl and could only describe her in one way.

"Cute!" She said before moving her hands forward and stretching the girl's cheeks.

"Ah!" Louise replied, trying to throw Kirche's hands off her face. A few seconds later she succeeded. "What was that for?"

"I'm sorry," Kirche started with a smile. "But you were so cute I just couldn't resist."

Louise gaped for a few seconds at her before slowly replying. "…Ok… Please don't do that again."

They stayed like that for a few seconds, looking at each other, before Louise coughed and extended her hand forward. "I'm Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière."

"I know." Kirche replied. Extending her own hand forward, she grabbed the pinkette's hand. "I'm Kirche Augusta Frederica… von Anhalt Zerbst." She said the last part slowly, seeing Louise's eyes narrowing with each word.

The Vallière tried to take her own hand back, but the redhead didn't release her. Frowning, she spoke. "Release me."

Kirche moved faster than Louise had thought possible, and suddenly the pink-haired girl had her cheeks being grabbed once again.

"Even your frowns are cute." Kirche said smiling while she tortured the pink-haired girl.

"Gah!" Louise screamed, before she managed to get free once again and put the table between her and the Germanian.

"It's a shame about your lack of bust." Kirche said, pointing first at hers and then at Louise's chest, smiling. "If you had one you might rival me for the affection of the male population."

"W-What are y-you talking about you l-lewd girl?" Louise screeched.

"Could it be?" Kirche moved forward a little, reaching the table.

"Could what be?" Louise put out curiously, looking askance at the redhead girl.

"You don't know?" Kirche asked.

"Know what?" Louise questioned back.

"Why, about what boys and girls do behind locked doors of course."

"W-what? Of course I… y-you p-pervert, shut up!" Louise shouted almost at Kirche's face.

The Germanian girl used the shorter girl's distraction and once again grabbed her cheeks, stretching them. "So cute."

Louise freed herself once again and moved some steps backwards, watching the redhead all the time.

"My face." Louise moaned, rubbing her hands on her cheeks.

Kirche simply smiled at the shorter girl.

"What do you want?" Louise asked after the pain stopped a little.

"I'd heard that I had a neighbor at school, and decided to visit." The redhead replied, smirking.

"You visited, now shoo." Louise said, making shooing motions at the redhead.

"You wound me." Kirche replied, putting her hands more or less where her heart was supposed to be.

"I certainly want to." Louise mumbled, too low for the Germanian to hear.

"What was that?" Kirche asked.

"Nothing."

Seeing as how the pink haired girl remained motionless, away from her, Kirche moved forward and looked at the book that Louise had been focusing on.

"Runes…" Kirche mumbled, half-questioning, half-wondering, seeing what the Vallière had been reading. She was going to pick up the book when the shorter girl grabbed it out of her reach.

"Mine, get your own."

"Ah, don't be like that little Louise."

_Interesting_. Kirche thought, seeing Louise twitch at the nickname.

"Don't call me that."

Seeing she had done what she had set out to do, Kirche decided to get ready to leave.

"Well then, I have things to do; bye, Louise. Until later."

"Just leave already." Louise replied bitterly.

Waving back at the pink-haired girl, Kirche left the library. She couldn't wait to see Louise's face when she discovered her room was right across from Kirche's.

The redhead smiled, anger and boredom forgotten. Maybe the Vallière girl had some use after all. As stress relief.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Louise's first three days at the Academy went by quicker than she had thought possible. Between the new unexplored buildings, the never read before books and the contact with new people Louise barely managed to pay attention to the passage of time, but eventually time passed and the day before the start of classes Professor Colbert appeared at Louise's room to discuss a few issues concerning the school.

In the end what the balding teacher wanted to tell her wasn't something of great importance, just some basic rules of the Academy that she would have been told had she ever attended the first year of the Academy. Only one of these rules inconvenienced her a little and that was the fact that, after the classes official start the students were required to make their meals at the Alvíss dining hall, something she had been skirting so far. Fortunately the professor told her James would be able to eat with her, despite the fact he was basically a guest at the Academy.

It wasn't that she was scared of the other Academy students, but she knew how famous her family was, adding to that the fact she was a student that would enter directly to the second year of learning at the school and her fellow students would naturally be interested in her. She already heard some rumors about herself at the library, where for once in her life her small frame was useful and the rest of the students present believed she was a first year.

So far the only student in school to find out her identity was that damned Germanian Kirche and fortunately, for now at least, she seemed intent of keeping her findings to herself.

Louise didn't trust her. After their meeting Louise had taken all possible precautions to evade the redhead and at the end day she believed she had gotten rid of her. That had been the moment she crossed paths with the redhead again, when she discovered that the damned girl's room was right across from hers. She didn't imagine what the redhead saw on her face that made her laugh like that, but she didn't let it affect her and entered her room not deigning to talk to the other girl.

Louise knew the girl was planning something, she was sure about it, you couldn't trust the Von Zerbst's, especially not that one with _those things_ in her chest. Those just weren't natural. For now though Louise couldn't do anything about it.

Putting those thoughts out of her mind, Louise continued walking towards the Alvíss dining hall, arriving a few minutes later. Looking inside Louise managed to see several rows of seated students eating breakfast.

Entering the room she saw James eating alone in one of the tables. "Good day." She said seating at his side.

"Hey. Sleep well?" James asked her.

"More or less," Louise started. "I was a little nervous about class, but I eventually I fell asleep."

"Good." He replied. "A good sleep is essential for a growing teenager."

"You always say that." Louise grumbled.

"I'm always right." He shot back with a smile.

"As if!" Louise scoffed.

They continued conversing with one another while they ate breakfast, talking about Louise's classes and several other subjects that crossed their minds. During the conversation Louise started to feel the eyes of her colleagues on her and a moment later she figured out why. James was the only adult eating with the students, seeing as the academy teaching staff was reunited in one of the tables present on a raised dais near the end of the room.

Louise could almost groan. She had managed to remain anonymous so far, only to attract the other student's attention simply by eating breakfast with her familiar.

James realized what Louise had figured out and was going to ask her if she wanted to leave, when something else happened too. A stunning redhead teenager appeared at Louise's side, almost as if by magic and seated herself at Louise's left hand. Accompanying her was a blue-haired haired girl.

"Hello Little Louise," Kirche said. "Sleep well?"

Louise closed her eyes and breathed for a few seconds before replying. "What do you want?"

Kirche looked at Louise before slowly pointing at the food on the table. "Isn't it obvious?" She said widening her eyes purposely.

"Why here?" Louise questioned coldly. "There are a lot of free tables around."

"Well I saw you here and I thought 'Hey isn't that my good friend Louise? Tabitha let's go eat with her.' and as you can see where we are." Kirche replied starting to pick up food from the table.

"We're not friends."

"Ah don't be like that Little Louise," Kirche said putting her arm over Louise's shoulders. "I know you love me."

"Why don't you go die somewhere?" Louise asked teeth clenching.

"Louise behave…" James interrupted.

Louise opened her mouth to say something, but seeing James's face she grumbled, closed her mouth and looked to the side.

Kirche seeing this reaction wondered. "Tell me Louise, who is this?"

"Why do you care?" The pink haired girl asked.

"I don't." Kirche replied shrugging. "I knew you were the third daughter, I just never thought your family would do this to you."

"Do what?" Louise asked confused.

"Well you know …"

"No I don't." Louise shot back.

"I never thought they would saddle you with someone so … old." Kirche replied with an apologizing look at James.

"What are you … y-you pervert. How can you t-think that you … pervert." Louise screamed at Kirche.

"Ah good," Kirche said with a false look of relief. "I wouldn't want to see your passion stifled so cruelly."

James looked confusedly at both young women as they continued speaking back and forth. Hesitantly he moved his head forward towards the redhead's companion. "Miss … what the hell is going on?" He asked gesturing toward Louise ongoing discussion.

The blue haired girl turned towards him and shrugged her shoulders.

James nodded; it was as good an answer as any could be given. The young girl also didn't know.

Eventually the girls' discussion died on and silence reigned for a few seconds on the table. Slowly, as if fearing any noise might restart the discussion between both girls, James spoke.

"Uh … Miss …?" He said questionably at Kirche.

Kirche preened looking at him. "I'm Kirche Augusta…"

"She's a Zerbst." Louise interrupted.

Kirche pouted. "Louise you make me sound so … dirty."

"As well as I should."

Kirche looked at Louise for a second before darting forward. "So cute!"

"Ah!" Louise scrambled backwards, ending up falling off her chair.

Kirche moved back towards her seat, trying to look as regal as possible even as Louise grumbled and was forced to rise up from the ground. She glared at the redhead before slowly seating herself once more.

"Ah I understand." James said looking from one girl to the other. He knew all about the Zerbst-Vallière rivalry.

"So who are you?" Kirche asked James.

"Um … I'm one of the servants of the Vallière family, Miss Zerbst. My name is James Alistair Williams."

"Ah. I see it…" Kirche replied.

"What. Now." Louise pronounced each word furiously.

"He's your babysitter." The redhead clarified.

"No he isn't."

"Yes he is."

"No he isn't."

"Oh admit it Louise, your family feared you would be thought of as a twelve year old girl and sent him as your guardian. It's quite understandable, after all you really look … petite." Kirche shot back with a significant look at Louise's chest region.

"Why y-you …"

"Louise …" James spoke warningly, shooting a look at the pink haired girl. He then turned towards Kirche. "Miss Zerbst, could you please stop teasing my little mistress? Otherwise I fear we will not manage to finish breakfast today."

Kirche shrugged and didn't answer but turned towards her food once again.

A few more moments of silence passed before someone spoke again.

"You did not present us to your friend, Miss Zerbst." James said.

Kirche shot a somewhat guilty glance at the blue-haired girl before she turned towards him. "I apologize for that," She started before turning to Louise. "But when I saw Louise I couldn't control myself." She said with a sigh. She then tuned towards James and continued. "This is my good friend Tabitha of Gallia."

Louise and James greeted Tabitha who greeted them back.

Eventually conversation resumed once again. The three girls started talking about school and Louise used the opportunity to ask some questions about the school and the classes the two other girls had the year before. From time to time Louise and Kirche would try to provoke the other, but they behaved for the most part under James's watchful gaze.

Seeing Louise's interaction with both girls James couldn't help but feel happy for Louise; he knew she had been somewhat afraid about how the other students would receive her, but seeing her with Tabitha and Kirche he believed she had found her first friends at the Academy, even if she wouldn't think so.

Sometime later they finished the breakfast and after some more riling between the pink and red haired girls, both groups went on their respective ways, after all later in the day they would have to be present at the summoning familiar ceremony and both groups had preparations to make.

.

.

.

Louise joined the second year students when there were still some minutes left to the beginning of the ceremony. James had stayed behind arguing that his presence here would only serve to make her peers more curious about her, seeing as they didn't know he was her familiar. Louise had to agree with him; still she would have liked to have him here.

The other students present looked at her curiously and after seeing she wasn't moving away from the place where they were waiting in the Vestri Court, they started realizing who she was. Louise started hearing their whispers and even if she didn't know what they were saying to each other she knew she was the topic of conversation.

This continued for a few more minutes. During that time Louise got more and more nervous. At least she did, until a pair of hands grabbed and turned her around, before plunging her face into a monstrous pair of breasts.

"Louise!" Kirche said loudly.

"Ah! Unhand me Zerbst." Louise replied, or at least tried to. From those seeing the scene from the outside her answer was more like "Ahh uhh mhmhm".

"Miss Zerbst, please stop that." Professor Colbert said after arriving at the scene.

Kirche released Louise. The pink haired girl for her part glared at the taller girl, before turning aside ignoring her.

"Well then" Colbert started. "Seeing as everyone is here we can start with the ceremony. Follow me."

The students followed the professor for a few minutes before they arrived at the summoning ritual site. The professor waited for a few moments while the students arranged themselves before speaking.

"We all know why we are where today. We are where so that one more class, one more group of students may summon their familiars. I hope all of you show yourselves to be respectable masters for your familiars, as is befitting of nobility."

The students hung over every word.

"Let's start." The professor said, before he saw Louise between the students. "Ah! It's true. Miss Vallière of you could come here …"

The students' attention focused once again on Louise. She blushed seeing her fellow colleagues' stares, but squaring her shoulders she marched forward to the professor.

"Class, Miss Vallière here won't be realizing the summoning ritual with the rest of us …"

"What?" "Why?" Several of the students' voices interrupted the balding teacher.

"… And that's because she already summoned a familiar." Colbert said loudly.

The students quieted down.

"As such she won't participate. The reason why Miss Vallière familiar isn't present is because unfortunately it got sick and had to remain in the Vallière estate in order to recover. I hope you'll not importunate Miss Vallière with questions about her familiar."

The professor gestured for Louise to return to the students' side and, face burning due to everyone's looks, she did.

The ritual started shortly and in no time the students started having their own familiars to pay attention. The first few summoned familiars were pretty common, such as owls, ravens, snakes etc.

Tabitha was the first student to summon a more distinctive familiar, a young looking blue dragon, but not the last. A male student had a Bugbear as a familiar, which was basically a giant floating eyeball. The last rare familiar to be summoned was, much to Louise's consternation, a fire salamander summoned by Kirche.

Eventually every student had summoned their familiar and after some more small words from the balding professor class was dismissed and most of the people simply levitated back to the castle.

Louise started walking back when she noticed that Kirche and Tabitha where still there. The redhead looked at Louise and then at the departing students before speaking.

"So let's go?" She asked Louise signaling the rapid moving dots of the flying students.

Louise grumbled a little before replaying. "I … I can't do levitation right."

"Oh?" Kirche said arching her brow.

"I just… I just can't alright? Now shoo." Louise shot back before she turned and continued walking. Suddenly she screamed as the ground disappeared from beneath her feet. "What are you doing?"

Kirche smirked at Louise even as both of them floated up. "Oh come on little Louise, you didn't think I would let you walk on your own to the castle did you?"

"Put me down Zerbst." Louise ordered loudly.

Kirche said with a sniff and turned her head. "No."

"Now."

"No." Kirche repeated. Tabitha joined both girls on the air, mounted in her dragon with Kirche's familiar at her side. Seeing this, the redhead nodded at the Gallian girl and suddenly shot forward, flying towards the castle dragging Louise in her levitation spell.

""

.

.

.

"Again?" James asked sighing.

"Yes." Louise replied.

Slowly James reached with his right hand once again towards Derflinger. The moment he touched the sword the Gandalfr runes in his left hand blazed to life. Louise didn't take her eyes from the runes, memorizing every detail she could see. She picked James hand and traced the runes with her fingers.

"Put it down!" She said. James obeyed and poised Derflinger once again, only to pick him up a few moments later at Louise's command.

The odd scene repeated itself a few more times before Louise was satisfied and then she moved towards her desk where several tomes where open. She nodded to herself and then made some small annotations in a piece of paper.

"Is that all?" James asked.

"For now." Louise muttered concentrated on her writing.

"Haven't you studied my runes enough?" He asked Louise in a weary tone.

"Yeah," Derflinger interceded. "Why not find someone for us to fight, if you want to see the runes in action so much?"

"Derflinger," James started in a suffering tone. "I already told you I don't want to fight anyone."

Louise responded to their questions after Derflinger did his obligatory grumblings about James non-aggression tendencies.

"I just want to figure out something about the runes, something that I am really close to doing, by the way."

"Uhm?" James hummed questionably. "What exactly?"

"I will tell you after I finish it."

James grumbled good-naturedly, he knew how Louise got when she was studying her favorite subject, he wouldn't get an answer out of her until she finished. Sighing he sat down on the bed and started conversing with Derflinger.

A few minutes later he got up. "Well seeing as you don't need me here, I am going for a walk."

Louise didn't move her sight from what she was reading, but she did wave goodbye at him. Slowly he left the room and started walking the hallways.

Yesterday had been the day when the second years had summoned their familiars and as such there weren't any classes today. This pause was intended so that masters and familiars got to know each other better. In James's case though that wasn't necessary, after all Louise summoned him several years ago, they already knew almost everything about one another. Besides that most of the school didn't know James was Louise's familiar, thinking him a servant of the Vallière family.

After breakfast, where once again Louise and Kirche were at odds with one another, Louise had almost dragged him into her room and ordered him to help her with her research. She had found out something in a book the day before and once the worry about the summoning ceremony passed, she insisted in trying whatever it was she had found.

Sighing once again James continued walking around.

A few minutes later he crossed a familiar face, the maid Siesta.

"Hello Miss Siesta." He said to the young dark haired woman.

The young woman looked at him for a moment before recognizing him and replying. "Hello Mister…" She said hesitantly.

"Oh that's true. I didn't introduce myself last time we met, I apologize for the oversight. I am James Alistair Williams, Louise de la Vallière … servant or perhaps butler for the lack of a better word." James said with a flourish and a smile at the young girl.

Siesta relaxed somewhat after learning that James wasn't a noble and with a smile replied him. "Hello Mister James."

James noticed the cleaning supplies at the young maid's feet. "Very busy I take it?"

"Not so much, I already finished. I was just about to pack things up" Siesta replied happily.

"Then let me help."

"Oh no, I couldn't …" Siesta replied.

"Nonsense," James interrupted. "I have nothing to do and you look like you can use the help. Come on!" He said picking some of Siesta's tools.

Siesta tried once more to stop him, before giving up and picking up what remained. They started conversing and a few minutes later they arrived at one of the Academy's storage rooms. After sorting things out in the correct compartments they left the room.

James spent a few more minutes talking to the black haired girl, learning several things about her and her work at the Academy, before he noticed she started shooting nervous looks over his shoulder at one of the Academy towers.

"It's something going on?" He asked worried.

"No, no," Siesta answered. "It's just that I have to help in the kitchens…"

"Ah! Of course, I apologize for detaining you here."

"No! I should thank you for helping me, you don't need to apologize" Siesta replied.

James smiled. "Let's just go our ways then, I shan't apologize and you don't need to thank me, agreed?"

Siesta nodded blushing "Yes sir."

"Nothing of that, call me James. Well then until next time Miss Siesta." James said.

"Goodbye then Mister James." Siesta said before turning around and leaving.

James waited for a few moments, looking at the leaving girl, before turning around and looking at the tower Siesta had saw before getting nervous. Not seeing anything he shrugged, putting his paranoia aside and with renewed vigor set forth towards the library, after all those books wouldn't read themselves would they?

.

.

.

Louise woke up the next day very much like she used to wake up every day. That is she opened her eyes, looked around and decided to get under the covers once again and wake up again a few minutes later.

When she finally got up from bed, she dressed quickly and after brushing her hair a bit she left her room, walking towards the Alvíss dining hall.

Her breakfast with James was once again interrupted by that germanian menace that was Kirche and her friend the shy gallian Tabitha. A few minutes later another couple of students, seemly friends of Kirche, arrived at the table and asked to join them. After some introductions they seated themselves and started eating.

The new arrivals were named Guiche and Montmorency. They were both blond and fair-skinned and for what Louise managed to infer of their relationship they seemed to be a couple.

Conversation at breakfast was light and faster than she would have liked breakfast finished. Louise got up, said her goodbye's to James and together with the remaining student's left the room. After a few minutes they arrived at the first class localization, the earth tower.

Louise paid some attention to the room layout after entering; the front was the lowest point of the room, being the place where the teacher would lecture the students, students who were arrayed in seats arranged upwards like stairs, from the lowest level to the highest point of the room.

Louise picked up a desk and sat on its chair, grumbling a bit when she noticed that Kirche choose the place right next to her.

A few minutes later the teacher arrived at the classroom. She was a middle aged woman, dressed in a voluminous purple robe and wearing a hat. She had a plump, round face with a friendly expression on it. Louise knew her; the teacher was Mrs. Chevreuse, the same woman that had been responsible for evaluating her, before she managed to enter the Academy.

Despite the fact that it was the woman's good evaluation of Louise that allowed her to enter the Academy, Louise didn't like her. It wasn't for anything the professor did exactly, but she simply didn't inspire any confidence in Louise. Nonetheless Louise would do her upmost in this class.

Chevreuse looked around at the students before speaking. "Well it seems the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a success. I'm very happy for all of you."

The teacher then proceeded to introduce herself as Chevreuse of the Red Clay and afterwards gave a small explanation about the several elements of magic. After that she questioned the students about how the classification of a mage was determined and seeing that no student volunteered an answer she looked around and seeing Louise repeated.

"Miss Vallière how is it that the potential of a mage is measured?"

"A mage's capabilities are determined by the number of elements a mage is capable of stacking in the execution of a spell."

Mrs. Chevreuse nodded at Louise for her to continue.

"A mage can be considered a dot mage if he can stack an element in a spell, a line mage if he can stack two, a triangle for three elements and a square mage if he can stack four elements. For example a spell that stacks water and a wind element is a line spell, meaning the mage is at least a line-class mage. If a spell stacks one water, one earth and another earth element it is considered a triangle-class spell, meaning the mage that used it is at least a triangle-class mage."

Louise paused for a second before continuing.

"Mages have affinities for determined elements. Usually when someone refers to a mage as a fire-mage it doesn't mean that that mage can only cast fire magic, it just means that he is naturally better at it. That mage can for example be capable of casting a triangle-class spell if it only stack's fire elements, but only capable of dot-level spells if he utilizes any other element. In some rare cases some mages will demonstrate affinities for two elements, or at least incredibly advanced understandings of a second element beyond their first element, but those are rare cases."

Mrs. Chevreuse nodded at Louise. "Very well said Miss Vallière, anything else you might want to add?"

Louise that about it for a second and then nodded. "Yes. Even 'inside' the mages' element, or better said their affinities, mages will sometimes show a connection to certain aspects of that affinity, like for example healing or lightning."

"Correct, and might I say very well explained Miss Vallière." The teacher congratulated. "That is in fact the reason why I am called the Red Clay, besides the fact that my affinity is earth, I have another 'affinity' inside my element, being that affinity for Clay. The runic names of mages sometimes offer clues about their affinities or techniques for which those mages are known, so you should all pay attention to them."

The professor looked around for a moment and after seeing Guiche continued. "You even have an example of this in this class; Mister Gramont over there is called 'The Bronze', a name that reflects an affinity that he has shown with bronze."

At this the students looked at Guiche who seemed to preen under the attention.

"You already are capable of certain spells that are outside your affinity," Chevreuse continued. "After all most of the class is already capable of casting levitation, which is an air spell, element most of you do not possess."

Some students could be seen nodding at this.

"Well then, continuing we will be talking about transfiguration …"

The rest of the class progressed without incident, with the students reviewing most of the previous year curriculum and soon enough the class came to an end.

The other morning classes went by very much like Mrs. Chevreuse class, mostly reviewing the previous year curriculums. Soon enough Louise's morning classes finished and the pink haired girl was once again moving towards the Alvíss dining hall with Kirche, Tabitha, Guiche and Montmorency.

Once she arrived she looked inside and seeing James went to sit by his side, the rest of the group following after her.

"So how was it?" James asked after she sat down.

"It was alright." Louise answered.

"I should say." Kirche interrupted. "I didn't know Little Louise was such an … intellectual."

"Leave me alone Zerbst."

"Ah don't take things the wrong way Little Louise." Kirche replied smirking, patting Louise on the head.

Louise twitched.

"Girls please stop." James asked them. "Let us just eat, so you can get to your classes."

Both of them grumbled but started eating. After a while James spoke again.

"I am going with you to Professor Colbert class."

Louise perched up. "Really? Why?"

"Yesterday I met your professor at the library and after some talk he spoke about some inventions of his. I got interested and he asked me if I wanted to see them, I said yes. He will show them to me at the end of class."

"So he's an inventor then?" Louise questioned.

"Seems so." James replied.

They continued eating the delicious food the Academy provides its students and after some sweet desert they left the hall, once again moving towards one of the surrounding towers. Soon enough they arrived at Professor Colbert's classroom.

The class wasn't much different from the ones realized in the morning, with the small exception that this time Louise was called to demonstrate a spell.

Louise understood way the professor asked her to do it, she could see it in his face, he was curious about her magic and her self-confessed failures in properly casting spells. Louise squared her shoulders, walked forward and after arriving near the professor, cast her spell.

Louise's mother had gone to extreme lengths to make Louise control her explosions. She figured that if Louise couldn't do any other spell, she could at least give a proper use to her explosions. So after years of training Louise was capable of controlling her explosions somewhat, reason why when her spell failed once again, only a small explosion occurred, just enough to destroy the small block of wood the professor had put as a target for the fire spell.

The rest of the class was surprised at the development, but they didn't think much on it, after all who hadn't miscast a spell before?

Soon enough class came to an end and the students started leaving the room. Louise stayed behind for a second looking at James, but then he signaled Louise to go ahead.

Louise nodded at him and left the room, a dark mood enveloping her thoughts. Suddenly someone grabbed her in a one-armed hug and Louise's face turned around to see Kirche hugging her.

"Louise I never figured you had such … passion on you."

"W-what are you on about you redheaded breast monster?" Louise said though gritted teeth.

"Only that I never had seen such fire, with such potency in anyone ever before, enough to simply obliterate its target like you did."

Louise paused for a moment. Was Kirche actually congratulating her? Louise thought about it for a moment. Her explosion were powerful, anyone could see that right? Louise started feeling a little better about things...

"Although that may be because of your pent up sexual tension."

… Wait, what?

"What did you say?" Louise asked gritting her teeth, hand moving towards her wand.

"I only said that you might have a lot of pent up sexual tension, it's the only reason that I figure out someone would miscast a fire spell in such an explosive manner."

Louise grabbed her wand.

"But don't worry." Kirche continued smirking, slowly moving away from the pink haired girl. "I'm sure we can find some young boy to … pound it out of you."

Louise brandished her wand, but the redhead germanian was already running away.

"Get back here Kirche." Louise shouted running after her. "Get back here you damned…" Louise paused for a second to find an adequate insult before settling for "… you damned Zerbst."

.

.

.

A cloaked figure could be seen outside the Academy's main tower walls, walking around from one side to the other. The black cloak concealed its features, not allowing for anyone to know if the one who was wearing it was male or female. The only distinctive mark that could be seen was the figure's long green hair.

This figure was Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt, one of the most dangerous and sought out thieves of Halkeginia.

If someone of the Academy saw the figure without its cloak, they would recognize her as the headmaster's secretary, Miss Longueville, but not even that was her true name. Her true name, Matilda de Saschen-Gotha was one she hadn't used in years.

Right now Matilda was testing the Academy's main vault defenses, trying to find some weak spot she could use. A week had already passed from the beginning of the classes and she wasn't anywhere near enough ready to breach the Academy's vault. Earlier today she had managed to find out some information about the Vault's security from Professor Colbert, but even that wasn't enough for her to find a weak spot.

_From what I can see, Colbert was right, the wards are weaker against physical force, but even then they are more than strong enough to stop me. _Fouquet thought. _I am going to have to find a way around that._

With that thought in mind Fouquet turned around and disappeared into the night.

.

.

.

It was without any great tumult that the rest of Louise's first month at the Academy drew close to an end. She still didn't manage to successfully cast a spell and most of the students started noticing this about the pink haired girl. There were some comments about that from some of them, but most of them remained quiet about the fact, both out of respect or fear of Louise's family or maybe because Kirche burnt one of the students who laughed at the pink haired girl.

Kirche's and Louise's relationship remained more or less the same, with the taller girl constantly taking potshots at the shorter one, but theirs was a growing friendship.

Louise also started to become friends with some of the other students. She already considered Tabitha, Montmorency and even the annoying skirt-chasing Guiche as friends.

James also made a few friendships of his own. First with Professor Colbert, a friendship started after their discussions about Colbert's inventions, and then he befriended the shy maid Siesta, who James considered a very sweet young girl.

Louise's classes were progressing well for the most part, with her having shown excellent knowledge about magic and spells, even if her magical spell casting was severely lacking.

Soon enough the first month came to an end and things remained the same, Louise's classes, her meals and even her discussions with Kirche became routine and soon enough what once was strange for Louise became the norm.

Things remained like that until the day the Princess came.


End file.
